


The Birthday Present

by janey_p



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Best Friends, Birthday Presents, Gen, Plot Twists, Zoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-09
Updated: 2013-12-09
Packaged: 2018-01-04 05:10:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1076907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janey_p/pseuds/janey_p
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s your best friend’s birthday. So what do you do? You get her the best birthday present ever, of course!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Birthday Present

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Das Geschenk](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1006458) by [janey_p](https://archiveofourown.org/users/janey_p/pseuds/janey_p). 



> I finally decided to post the translation to my German story. It’s been “finished” for a while now, but I kept it offline for weeks, because there are parts in there that I’m not happy with or unsure about. There are so many things that just can’t be translated properly – and whenever I try, I tend to trip over grammar and wording.
> 
> So any native speaker who can help me with said grammar and wording, feel free to comment with suggestions for improvement (gently, because I’m a delicate flower :P).

Ava would probably spend her birthday at the zoo with her best friend.

One might think that that was a nice pastime for a birthday, but she hadn’t really imagined it going like this. She’d much rather spend her time in the great outdoors instead of letting crowds of raucous people shatter her nerves.

She stared morosely at the cages’ tight wire mesh, where the zoo-goers jostled and insulted each other, because they absolutely _had_ to look the “wild animals” in the eye. How very shameless and undignified! But, unfortunately, there was no escape from the noisy and bothersome townsfolk on a nice day like today. If only it would rain! At least, then there’d be fewer people here...

She didn’t know how much time had passed when a commotion spread both inside and outside the cages. For a moment, she looked around in confusion, but the smell of fish that wafted over from the sea lion compound explained the disturbance: It was feeding time! She really could have guessed that. Everybody always went nuts, whenever someone brought food. As if there never was enough for them all...

Until now, her friend Brenna had appeared more than indifferent, but now she came closer, as well. She was downright vibrating with anticipation, which Ava thought to be quite strange. She shot a questioning glance at Brenna – but instead of giving a comprehensible answer, Brenna only nodded at the zookeeper in the aviary, who was currently defending the feeding bucket from a few over-eager ravens. She wondered what that nod might mean. After all, one couldn’t miss the keeper and his presence in itself was nothing out of the ordinary. But Brenna didn’t seem to be willing to elaborate; instead she fixed her gaze on the man as if she was waiting for something particular.

Ava decided not to give it another thought. If her friend needed to be cryptic so badly, she wouldn’t get in her way. So she turned back to looking at the visitors, who now took their children onto their shoulders so that they wouldn’t miss even the slightest thing. As if those little brats had never seen any black birds in their life...

–––

The rest of the day passed fairly quickly, and when the people began to clear out around sunset, Ava found herself relaxing again. Finally, the zoo-goers’ screeching didn’t drown out the much more pleasant sounds of the animals. _Finally_ , she could close her eyes and imagine she was somewhere in the wild, far away from all those people with their bad manners.

By the time she opened her eyes again, both the visitors and the keepers had left. In a few minutes, daylight would be gone completely. In the meantime, Brenna had settled next to her and again she was in high spirits. But this time, Ava wouldn’t let the matter rest.

“Mind telling me what’s up with you today?” she asked.

“I know what to give you for your birthday now,” Brenna said with barely restrained excitement.

“What kind of present would you even be able to get me here?” No, Ava was definitely _not_ bitter.

“You’ll see! Just wait a little longer. The others aren’t asleep yet.”

Now Ava was completely confused. But she also knew that asking again wouldn’t help. Brenna was good at keeping secrets.

She had almost fallen asleep herself when Brenna stirred again.

“Come with me!”

“Where to? It’s not like we’d be able to go far here.”

“Oh, don’t you worry. We’ll come farther than you think.”

And, of course, Brenna was right. As they neared the cage door, Ava noticed the small gap.

“How–” She fell silent and eyed the gap suspiciously.

Carefully, Brenna pulled at the door edge and with a faint “click” the door opened enough to let them both through.

“Earlier, when the keeper brought the food and didn’t pay attention, I leaned a pebble against the doorframe, so the door wouldn’t close correctly. I’ve seen it happening a few days ago. But this time he didn’t notice.”

“And nobody else has seen this?” Ava was still wary. Somehow she had yet to convince herself that Brenna’s plan could actually work.

“The others were far too busy squabbling over the food. Their own fault, if you ask me. I couldn’t care less about what they’ll do with the open door, should they wake up before the keepers find out. As long as they don’t make a racket over it… So, come along now. Let’s not wait too long!”

Ava stared intensely at the open door for a while longer, until the consequences began to dawn on her: This was the way to freedom! Behind this door, there was only a short corridor made of coarse-meshed wire. With some patience, they be able to squeeze through somewhere.

It was worth a try!

Decisively, she followed Brenna into the corridor, where her friend had already found the widest mesh close to the ground and had started to work on it with her beak and talons. A moment later she turned to look at Ava.

“You’ll go first.”

Ava’s heart was beating wildly in her chest. Soon, they’d be free… That was if nothing went wrong at the last minute. Oh, how she hoped that nothing would go wrong!

Although Brenna had widened the mesh, it was still quite difficult to get through. For a breathless moment, she thought she’d get stuck – but before she could start to panic, Brenna pushed. And then she was on the other side. She may have lost a feather or two, but who cared? _She was outside!_

As expected, Brenna had less trouble with the wire, and it was likely that this was the first time she was happy to be the smaller one. With a relieved flutter, she landed next to Ava, and while they were still straightening their plumage, the bell of a neighboring church chimed midnight.

“Happy birthday,” Brenna said with a wink, shook her wings and flew up. Quickly, she merged with the darkness, only visible whenever the shine of the street lamps reflected off her feathers. It wouldn’t take long before she’d be gone completely.

Wild joy bubbled up inside Ava as she followed Brenna into the night. Because whatever lay ahead of them, it could only be better than the weeks they spent in that cage.

Ultimately, only one thing counted: Ava would definitely _not_ spend her birthday at the zoo with her best friend, now.

  
 **_THE END_ **

**Author's Note:**

> I chose the birds’ names for their meanings:
> 
>  **Ava:** one of the meanings is “bird” (from Latin “avis”)  
>  **Brenna:** two of the meanings are “raven” and “black-haired”


End file.
